CONTRACT PROJECT MANAGER

PURPOSE

APR Consulting Co is a strategic production consultancy at the forefront of the advertising industry and is seeking a CONTRACT PROJECT MANAGER to join our team. 

DEFINING SUCCESS FOR THIS ROLE

This position will be successful if they can demonstrate the following objectives and performance targets:

• Contribute to the overall financial health and success of our account portfolio by effectively supporting the Client Solutions team. This includes managing staffing and labor on project schedules, developing pricing and scope, and ensuring the internal planning and delivery of project deliverables.

• Act as a key partner to Group Directors, Managing Advisors, and other stakeholders. Assist in guiding the development, management, and delivery of scoped deliverables while assessing resource allocation and profitability.

• Challenge traditional methods and bring forward new ideas. Demonstrate a proactive approach by influencing internal processes and operational standards. Effectively manage and influence both peers and leadership, driving accountability and fostering a culture of continuous improvement across the organization.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

This position’s key responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

Account & Portfolio Governance

• Oversee Client Solutions account performance, including labor tracking, billing accuracy, risk management, and scope adherence.

• Ensure scopes, deliverables, and services remain aligned with business objectives.

• Conduct impact analyses for scope changes and recommend next steps.

• Develop understanding of client scopes of work, cost outs, contracts and billing requirements – and manage to those goals

• Facilitate retrospectives, document lessons learned, and refine portfolio management processes.

Project Management Support 

• Proactively maximize bandwidth by balancing core responsibilities with supplemental client and/or internal engagements, bridging resource gaps and support for PMO leadership.

• Offer peer coverage and assist with overflow workloads when needed.

Resource & Staffing Coordination

• Contribute to the understanding of company capacity and individual capabilities through tracking what available personnel are working on now and in the future and identify any gaps

• Partner with Resource Management to resolve resource conflicts, determine workloads, and optimize utilization across accounts.

• Support Group Directors in resource allocation, tracking, and prioritization.

• Track project/retainer actuals against SOW hours, deliverables, or project counts.

Project Workflow & Operations

• Lead effort to achieve project objectives

• Work with team to accurately scope out length and difficulty of tasks and projects

• Responsible for ensuring agreed-upon project tasks are completed within scope, time, budget and quality constraints

• Support end-to-end account workflow including time management, scope delivery, and risk prioritization.

• Risk Planning – anticipate problems and roadblocks, engage in contingency planning and recommend solutions or alternative methods to negate risks

• Maintain process documentation, operational policies, production calendars, timelines, and reports.

• Schedule internal and client meetings; maintain documentation, file structure, and naming conventions.

• Manage team schedules, deadlines, reporting workflows, and client reporting calendar

• Seek opportunities to engage others in procedural improvements

• Engage in client business to larger degree, establishing strong ties with your Client Solutions leads and attending as many client meetings as possible 

• Measure performance against goals

Business & Financial Management

• Partner with Group Directors and Client Services on SOWs and staffing plans.

• Create and review project/retainer cost-outs and track actuals against budget.

• Review burn reports, monitor contribution margins, and recommend adjustments to maintain financial alignment.

• Maintain detailed record of scope changes

• Manage financial milestones in APR systems and coordinate payment reconciliation with finance.

• Participate in monthly finance and billing reviews.

Departmental Contribution

• Collaborate, share knowledge, and support a culture of consistency, compliance, and operational excellence across teams—including global teams.

• Support the development, improvement and use of all company collaboration, archival and financial tools and systems to improve process and get work done efficiently

ABOUT YOU

• 6-8 years experience as a Project Manager, Senior Project Manager, or similar in advertising/marketing industry

• PMP Certification (Project Management Professional) or actively working to obtain certification desired

• Proficiency in Google Workspace

• Experience with Deltek Workbook or Deltek products is a plus.

• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written).

• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and adaptable.

• Calm and focused under pressure; assertive conflict-resolution and problem-solving skills.

• Effective decision-maker, even under tight deadlines.

• Demonstrates confidence, professionalism, and diplomacy.

• Capable of establishing strong relationships and gaining trust from peers.

• Positive, collaborative, and solutions-oriented.

• Embraces technology advancements and process changes.

• Future-focused and technologically adept.

• Good listener, takes feedback well, and addresses problems.

• Lead, motivate and inspire with compassion and vision